Virginia to the rescue
When we were choosing our painting company, we talked to several that were recommended by our color gal, of course. But Virginia was the one for me! She’s a spunky, sassy business owner, and I just knew we were in good hands with one of her crews.
The painting part of the project went flawlessly. That team was flying all over the different parts of our house for two weeks, handling everything with such care and an eye to detail and perfection. Plus they were fun and sweet and a delight to have round the house.
And then came the staining part of the adventure. Two wooden sides of the wraparound porch were part of the project (the other two are Trex decking, in perfect condition (that stuff is kind of great; it’s what Steve used for the kids pergola deck in back.) The painting crew stained the railings first. They were pretty rough (the railings, not the crew!), and the stain was a little darker than I imagined. But it was fine.
Then they did one half of the wooden porch deck. I looked at it and said, hmmmm. Steve got home and looked at it and said, “Oh no, not good.” The bottom line is that it appeared they had only attempted to spot sand the surface, so all of the old stains and treatments (partially worn off, partially there), were left on and they attempted to stain over that mess. It looked horrible. I thought maybe it will dry different. It did not. Steve had to play bad cop on this one (which was amazing, because I NEVER get to play good cop!)
We were on our getaway on the river in Montana while this is playing out. Steve reached out to Virginia, and I think his exact words were, “Yeah, the deck is not taking the stain very well.” Of course he’s the world’s nicest bad cop! Virginia said she would come take a look and then had her stain guy come out. The answer was obvious - this deck should have been sanded of course!
Virginia promised to make it right, and she has been doing that all day.
She has a large operation with many crews working on projects all over the region. But today she brought her sander and spent the day on her hands and knees sanding half of the improperly stained deck. She said she is having her crew lead come tomorrow to finish the job, since he should have known it was not done properly. And she also said now that SHE has done it, they can’t say “it can’t be done.” What a manager and leader!
In the meantime, the construction guys have been working on the front post wraps and building the new set of stairs. They will come back tomorrow and finish the stair railings and the trim on the bottom of the posts and the other details. They were magicians, the way they dismantled and reassembled our porch. As they put it, “It’s only a couple of screws.”
After the sanding is properly done, they will do the correct staining probably Monday of next week. But it already looks phenomenal. I can totally see the vision coming into view. And the stain color really helps integrate the roof as we were hoping and praying it would!
First, a few front porch BEFORE photos:
OMG can you believe we have been walking up these mangled stairs every day for almost 5 years????
Montana’s paint tests. We went with the left-hand color in a semi-gloss, btw. Mostly just glad to have the ORANGE doors gone forever!
Yep, this was how our porch deck looked. Ugh.
Ugly!
And now a few ALMOST DONE AFTER photos:
Transformed! That’s the vision, right there! The cedar-wrapped beams are absolutely perfect. At first we were going to do all of the beams all the way around, but we ended up deciding to create a focus area around the front door. I am so glad we did - this is exactly what I was hoping for.
They will add the stair railings tomorrow and that will also make a huge difference. Steve is extending the basket irrigation up to the loft so I can hand two baskets up there. We are also finally adding hedges along the front, but that will wait until fall or spring.
I love the width of the new stairs; they are going to be great.
Post trim goes on tomorrow, too.
Our Motawi tile house numbers look fantastic against the new color.
Now the stain debacle:
Here you can see how the porch deck looked after their first staining attempt - beyond horrible. Then you can see one of the spots Virginia properly sanded today. Duh
This is the edge of where they had previously attempted to stain and then the unprepared porch deck. You can see the one vertical bright and shiny board. Virginia said she used that board as a test and ran the sander over the deck as it was and it immediately sanded down fully. So if the crew had just sanded as they were supposed to, it would have been such a simple job.
She also properly sanded down the top railing boards, which also had not been properly prepared. She was angry! But we are in good hands, as she is making things right.
The vision coming to fruition finally!
Monochrome for the win!
With the sun on it right now, the gray almost looks blueish gray in this photo, but trust me - it is a unique gray that leans a bit more toward green. And the dark oak color is perfect for that roof, whew - it’s happening!
